Diego Luna: 'Star Wars role brought me closer to my son'

Actor Diego Luna has credited his role in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story with strengthening his bond with his young son.

The Mexican star's eight-year-old boy Jeronimo used to despise his dad's job because it would keep them apart for weeks on end, but that all changed when Diego was cast in his kid's favorite sci-fi franchise.

"Our whole relation (sic) has changed since this news came out...," Diego smiled on breakfast show Good Morning America. "He's a huge fan of Star Wars and when I told him, he just went crazy!

"Work used to separate us; he hated my job. He was like, 'Where are you going? Why for so long? Are you crazy? You're gonna leave me here?'"

Diego reveals his son started to keep an eye on his dad's timekeeping and even gave the 36-year-old a firm talking to before his first day on set to ensure he didn't misbehave and put his role in the Star Wars spin-off movie in jeopardy.

"Now he was like, 'Dad, you gotta go! It's 6am, what are you doing here? Please behave (on set),' that kinda thing," the actor recalled. "That talk you have when they're gonna go to school, it was the other way around! 'Make sure you do what the director says...'"

Diego, who portrays a Rebel Alliance intelligence officer in the movie, was able to invite Jeronimo and his six-year-old daughter Fiona, with ex-wife Camila Sodi, to visit him at work, and his boy didn't want to leave.

He continued, "They both went to set and it was beautiful because they came to the rebel station and it's an amazing set, where you have all the ships and the people running around and droids and everything. My son was looking at that going, 'This is paradise, finally. We're never going to go back home, right dad?'"

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story also features Felicity Jones, Mads Mikkelsen, Forest Whitaker, and Ben Mendelsohn, and opens in theaters from 14 December (16).